neanderthal paganism

If I had to explain magic to an alien life form I would tell them about nature.

"The honor that was to console a man in death must have a compelling force—not only to beget songs, but also to beget a successor in whom the honor shone out anew."

―Vilhelm Grönbech, The Culture of the Teutons (1931) #MythologyMonday

Photo of front of a bronze oblong shield, with central raised boss in an elongated oval, including red enamel inlays in curvilinear forms.

Close-up of shield boss.

Close-up of lower part of shield design, including engraved spirals, and zoomorphic features.

🏺🏛️ Witham shield, Middle Iron Age, River Thames

(pic taken at British Museum)

death is a journey toward the mother, just as birth is a departure from her

“Religious creativity was stimulated, not by the empirical phenomenon of agriculture, but by the mystery of birth, death and rebirth.”

1 year of neanderthal paganism ❤️

A red sunset slips into cloud over the sea. In the foreground five white sheep mill on and around the central recumbent stone between two standing stones. The moorland grass is scrubby and green with patches of rushes.

Sunset at the Waen Oer (cold moor) stone row

Myth is the archaeology of the mind.

“The ancient Pythagoreans called the two Bears the Hands of Rhea, and the wandering planets the Hounds of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.”

“Our natural magic is but the ancient religion of the world—the ancient worship of nature.”

―W.B. Yeats

Were the ancients ignorant in canonizing the fetal drama as a mythological archetype, or humbly reverent and curious before creation?

this is an owl

Symbols repeat across cultures because they’re older than any civilization we know.

Showing my family what I’ve worked on this year (they don’t care)

Get outside. And hopefully North of a major urban light center

“Our lives are like the wind, or like sounds. We come into being, resonate with each other, then fade away.”

―Hayao Miyazaki

The fairy-tale worldview is Neanderthal.

The folklorists were simply the first to write it down.

By the third trimester, fetuses achieve REM sleep, unconsciously logging the earliest memories that will inform their dreams forever.

Twelve of the most prominent citizens of the land of mushrooms are depicted in this early 20th century lithograph. All are edible except (9) the deadly Fly Mushroom. (4) Coral Clavaria and (8) Parchment Lacatarius are edible when perfect, but when imperfect they are slightly poisonous and should only be dealt with by experts. The other mushrooms are (1) Shaggy Pholiota, (2) Puff Ball, (3) Dog Cortinarius, (5) Red Clavaria, (6) Violet Clavaria, (7) Meadow Mushroom, (10) Common Morel, (11) Magpie Mushroom, and (12) Yellow Chanterelle. The Puff Ball and the Morel are not, strictly speaking, mushrooms, but being close fungi relatives, have been invited to the convention.’

Citizens of the Land of Mushrooms, C20th lithograph.

Every Northern culture shared this common idea: the bear's retreat into the earth promises rebirth in spring.

The Bear’s Son Tale: A Neanderthal Legacy The world's most widespread folktale may echo a shared ancestral memory.

Scholars assume indigenous cultures were passive recipients of European stories rather than the bearers of their own rooted mythological traditions.

The argument for common Paleolithic inheritance 👇

open.substack.com/pub/milbel/p...

Painting of forest in deep, autumnal colours and unleafed trees.

Forest in Late Autumn,
Caspar David Friedrich, 1835.

Neanderthals buried their dead in the fetal curl, returning them to the “womb” for rebirth.

Bodies faced the rising sun. Caves became tomb-temples—thresholds between worlds.

#LegendaryWednesday

Ancestors blend into a single form to protect their descendants.

Trees die and become the mycelial networks that protect their descendants.

Paganism is nature.

The passage grave at La Barbière in Crossac (Loire-Atlantique) has a 20-ton 4x3m capstone over the chamber still supported on 3 orthostats; the others have been robbed. Two slipped capstones and some supports still survive from the ruined passage. #TombTuesday.

“The Irish fairies were not imagined as being very different in form or appearance to the human race, except that they might be somewhat paler in hue and dressed in clothing of silk and satin.”

🙌

The Lost Book of Shinto Kunio Yanagita’s Elusive Wartime Masterpiece on the Japanese Family System

Everyone knows Japan has Shinto.

But in the early 20th century, one folklorist feared the tradition had drifted too far from its roots, and set out to recover what was ancient, native, and half-forgotten.

Read “The Lost Book of Shinto" now👇

#promosky #writersky

www.milbel.com/p/the-lost-b...

we've entered the underworld 🫡